Rook Endgames in Practice
The rook endings that come up in real games: cutting the king off, defending from the short side, rook against pawn, and the rook pawn, with exact results.
Rook endings are the most common endings in chess, and the hardest to play well. The Lucena and Philidor positions, in Endgame Essentials, are where they end up; this course is about getting there, or keeping your opponent from getting there.
Each lesson gives the idea, a checklist of what it needs, each condition shown with the move that keeps the result and one that throws it away, then the method move by move and positions to solve.
Lessons
- 1Cutting the King OffWith rook and pawn against rook, the defending king is the best defender. Cut it off from the pawn with your rook, by enough files, and the pawn walks through.
- 2The Short-Side DefenceWhen your king cannot get in front of the pawn, send it to the short side and let the rook check from the long side, from far away. A rule of thumb that saves countless rook endings.
- 3Rook Against PawnA rook against a lone pawn should win, but only if your king gets there in time. Bring the king, keep the checks for later, and beware: in the Saavedra position the pawn wins.
- 4The Vančura PositionRook and a-pawn against rook is the most common rook ending of all. When the attacking rook stands in front of the pawn, attack the pawn from the side, keep your king on g7 or h7, and it is a draw.
- 5The Active RookIn rook endings, activity is worth more than a pawn. Capablanca's win against Tartakower shows how: rook on the seventh, king forward, and pawns given away without a second thought.
How these lessons were checked
Every position with up to seven pieces is checked against the Lichess endgame tablebase, which knows its exact result; larger positions are checked with Stockfish. A move shown as working keeps the best result available, a win or a draw; a move shown as failing throws it away. Every exercise has one answer: the only move that keeps the result, or, where several do, the only one that makes progress without losing time (by the tablebase's count of moves to the next pawn move or capture). The number under the board is the exact result where the tablebase covers the position.